Water is a precious natural resource. It is also a key ingredient in most of our beverages, so it’s necessary for operating our stores. We’re working to better understand how we use water, and how we can use it more responsibly.
What we’ve been doing.
A great deal of the water we use in our stores is to make coffee and tea beverages and for “back of the house” operations, such as running dishwashers and ice machines.
We work to include water-saving technology in our equipment specifications. In our U.S. company-owned stores, our mechanical dishwashers use less than one gallon of water per cycle through high pressure spray arms. And we train our partners (employees) to keep the refrigeration coils on ice machines clean to reduce the amount of latent heat from the machines and minimize ice melt.
In many markets, we use a blast of higher-pressure water to clean blender pitchers instead of an open tap. We’ve also programmed our espresso machines to dispense less water when rinsing espresso shot glasses.
Hurdles.
We balance water conservation with the need for customer and partner health and safety. For many years, we’ve been using dipper wells (or sanitizing sinks) to store the spoons we use to prepare beverages. Dipper wells use a continuous stream of potable running water to rinse away food residue, helping keep utensils clean and preventing bacterial growth. Our effort was focused on ensuring that we would meet or exceed regulatory requirements and internal food safety standards.
We recognize that the amount of water used by the dipper well system is unacceptable. We’ve been working since 2007 to find a solution that balances the need for water conservation and customer safety. In 2008, we intensified our search for alternative methods that can achieve both objectives.
In 2009, we started implementing new operational alternatives to the dipper well system that we believe will significantly reduce our water usage across the globe. We plan to begin installing hand meter systems in U.S. stores starting in spring 2009 that will use less water than the dipper well system. In locations where the hand meter system is not available, alternatives have been made available, including the new “single spoon, single pitcher” procedure. Both solutions reduce water consumption while still protecting customer safety.
What we’re working on.
We’re committed to significantly reducing our water usage. In addition to finding an alternative to dipper wells, in 2009 we’ll conduct a comprehensive water footprint audit to evaluate our store design, equipment and operations. We’ll use these findings to better understand our water usage, identify opportunities to reduce our overall water consumption and set measurable goals.
